JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Now to France and a vote today in Parliament.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking French).
SUMMERS: That is the sound of French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou losing a confidence vote after just nine months in office. The far left and extreme right joined other opposition parties to stop his plans to cut the budget deficit. French President Emmanuel Macron must now name a new prime minister. NPR's Paris correspondent Eleanor Beardsley is here with more. Hi.
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: Hi, Juana.
SUMMERS: Eleanor, tell us what happened today in the French National Assembly.
BEARDSLEY: Well, I want to start by letting you hear 74-year-old centrist Prime Minister Francois Bayrou speaking tonight before the vote. He's respected and has had a long political career, though he'll be resigning tomorrow. Here he is.
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PRIME MINISTER FRANCOIS BAYROU: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: He said, "I wanted this confidence vote, and many of you told me it was risky. But I thought the opposite. I thought continuing on with politics as usual until we reach the edge of the cliff was risky." You see, France has a massive debt, 114% of GDP, currently the highest in the Eurozone. And Bayrou has been on a crusade to alert the French to what he calls this Damocles sword hanging over the country. And he wanted the support of the Parliament as he tried to enact huge cuts in the next budget, but he didn't get it.
SUMMERS: So Eleanor, what comes next?
BEARDSLEY: Well, tomorrow morning, Bayrou will present his resignation to President Macron, who will have to go back to the drawing board to name a new prime minister. But each time Macron has to do this, it gets harder. Bayrou was Macron's third prime minister in the last year and a half. This revolving door of prime ministers began last year when Macron gambled and dissolved Parliament, hoping to increase his majority. Instead, he lost his majority. The far right and the far left now control the biggest blocks in Parliament. They are demanding that the new prime minister come from their camp. So Macron will have a very difficult time getting and naming a centrist to implement his policies. I spoke with French political journalist Thierry Arnaud about it.
THIERRY ARNAUD: It is a disastrous situation for President Macron, who now has only bad solutions ahead of him. Macron will try to do everything he can to avoid putting the far right in charge of the government, but it's not necessarily obvious that he will have that option.
SUMMERS: Eleanor, any sense who the next prime minister might be?
BEARDSLEY: Right now, no one knows. But the far left and far right really want the job, and they're thrilled with tonight's vote. Here is far-left France Unbowed party congresswoman, Mathilde Panot, speaking.
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MATHILDE PANOT: (Speaking French).
BEARDSLEY: She says, "this vote signifies that Macron's policy's by the rich and for the rich, and his social war against the people is over." You know, her party says France has no debt problem, and they've also called on Macron to resign along with his prime minister. They say he's illegitimate. Of course, there's little chance that would happen. Macron has two more years to go, but his support is very low. It's around 15%, Juana.
And the far-right National Rally party, the most popular party in France right now - it's polling at about a third of the electorate - is pushing its candidate, 29-year-old Jordan Bardella, who's the far-right hand - right-hand man, sorry - far-right right-hand man of Marine Le Pen, whose family has run the party for more than 50 years after her father founded it. He's a TikTok star, popular with young voters and says he's ready to be prime minister. But for sure, a far-left or far-right government would take France in a very different direction than the way Macron's been leading it. Macron says he'll name a replacement in the coming days, and we wait.
SUMMERS: We wait, indeed. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley, thanks.
BEARDSLEY: Thank you, Juana. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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